Chapter 19

Thursday morning, before school started, William quickly made his way to the library. He smiled slightly at Lindsey and arched an eyebrow.

The librarian smiled brightly, "Good morning William. Don't worry, there's no sign of Mary today. Though I'm surprised to see you."

He smiled, gently, "We need to discuss payment for services rendered. I thought, perhaps, you could give me your address and I could stop by your home tomorrow eve, around ten or so, and make good my account."

The raven haired beauty arched an eyebrow, "Do you expect this to take long?"

"When I do something milady, I prefer to do it thoroughly and properly," he said with a dark twinkle in his eyes.

Lindsey was blushing like a schoolgirl as she stammered out her address, "You need to be somewhat discreet when you visit though. I live in an apartment, and I don't need any loose talk about, very, young men visiting in the night."

"Would it be better if I visited during the daylight hours on Saturday or Sunday?"

"It might be," she admitted quietly.

William nodded, "Sunday at two for a 'tutoring session' instead then?"

The woman breathed a small sigh of relief, "That should work." She breathed a mental sigh of relief a minute later when he left. She didn't know what sort of hold he had over her, aside from being the best lay of her life, but she would have run the risk of having a young man visiting her late at night if he'd pressed. Instead, he'd changed his plans to make things safer for her. She released a quivering sigh as she walked into her office and locked the door behind her before she undid her slacks...

&*&

When lunchtime rolled around, the girls were somewhat surprised to see the new addition to their table.

"Ladies," William said, "this is Lukas Brasi, a new Associate of mine. See him if you have a need of muscle. Lukas, I presume you know these two?"

"A touch, but an introduction would be welcome."

King nodded, "Rose is the well built young woman whom I've come to rely upon for personnel information concerning locals. The lovely redhead is Alexandria, my second. Needless to say, disrespect either and I'll take it very personally."

"Granted," Brasi said with a nod, acknowledging the semi-subtle threat. "Pleased to meet you ladies," he said, nodding to each in turn.

With the hierarchy properly established, William handed the two their lunch packets and said, "Alright you two, reports please."

Alexandria opened the packet, "I got my half of the clique leaders invited, all accepted, including Smith."

"This means Lukas," William noted, "that you need to loiter about the library on Friday. Given the ass kicking I gave him, I doubt Smith'll try anything given the game will be under my purview, but I find it's wisest never to assume people aren't going to make dumb decisions."

"Not a problem Boss," the Enforcer said.

Rose said, "Are you alight with taking on Smith solo if it comes down to it?"

"Yeah," Lukas said with a grin. "I can take any of the Bully's on their own. It's only in a group where things can get nasty."

The larger female nodded, "Like Lexi, all invites delivered and accepted. There might be an issue however sir," she said nervously.

Williams sighed, "The uninvited snobs?"

Rose snorted an unexpected laugh, "Yeah, them. They're going to find out about the game; sooner rather than later most likely. And then they're going to be irritated that they weren't important enough to warrant an invitation."

"Are there any important enough that soothing their ego would be worth the associated headaches?"

"Not really," Rose said after a moment's consideration. "Any good it would do in the short term would be more than offset by the expectation of special privileges later on; plus further irritate anyone we didn't make a special exemption for."

King nodded, "More or less what I expected. Lukas, you're also going to be acting as a Bouncer."

The newcomer nodded, "Already planned on it. Do you mind if I pull in a couple of extra hands?"

"They get paid out of your cut," King said. "That aside, if you're sure you can trust them, feel free. I'm going to want you to pull together your own crew anyway. That goes for you as well Alexandria."

Rose cleared her throat, "And me?"

"If you want to, you're more than welcome to Rose. However, your primary responsibility is not going to require a great many assistants."

"So I should probably look into getting one or two folks whom I can call when I need them, but overall, don't worry about it?"

"Essentially," William confirmed. "Lukas is going to be available should you have need."

Rose frowned slightly and nodded, even as she made a mental note to talk with her Boss at some time in the very near future about her ongoing usefulness to him.

With that issue settled, William said, "Lukas, I have a small errand to deal with here at the school after classes are concluded for the day, after which I will have a need of you. Yes ladies, that means another day of you attending your lessons on your own," he added with a small smile even as he noted Rose's slightly disappointed look. He made a mental note himself to spend more time with her; it wouldn't do for her to think she was unappreciated, that way laid trouble; doubly when dealing with a female.

For his part, Lukas was wondering just what he'd dealt himself into with his new boss; still, he said, "Can do. Meet outside the main doors when you're done?"

King nodded as he finished his food, and let silence reign for a few minutes until the bell rang for afternoon class.

Shop class passed pleasantly enough and afterwards, William quickly made his way to the music classroom hoping to catch the teacher before he left for the day; and subsequently shortstop another bout of public humiliation. "Ah, Mr. McQueen, a moment if I may," he said as he walked into the Music Room.

"Ah, Mr. King, I was hoping to speak with you," the music teacher said congenially. He stood head and shoulders above the teen (much to no one's surprise) and he still retained the shoulders that made him a Varsity center as a freshman despite being well into his sixties. "If you like, Mr. King, I can offer you supplementary lessons."

The teenager snorted, "Honestly Mr. McQueen, better than you have tried to straighten my singing voice out; as you can tell, none have succeeded. May I," he said as he waved to the piano.

The music instructor nodded, curious as to what the young man was up to. He was surprised when young King adjusted the bench just so and his eyebrows nearly met his (receding) hairline as the young man started to play; not just play, but really Play despite having smaller than normal hands in line with his physique.

After a minute and a half of playing, William stopped and turned to the teacher, "Do you wish for me to continue or have I made my point?"

It took the teacher a moment to reorder his thoughts and the first thing that came to mind, "How? How has a prodigy like you flown under the radar for so long?"

William shrugged as he said, "It's not any innate talent if that's what you're asking. It's simply that I'm not the least bit afraid of hard work and I absolutely loathe looking like a fool in public. What you see, or rather heard, was more the result of many hours of practice than any inborn gift."

"Still, why show me this?"

King sighed, "As I have already noted, some of the best in the world have tried to sort out my singing voice, with a noticeable lack of success. I was hoping I could convince you to let me move from the choir to the accompanying piano instead."

McQueen sighed, "I might, but you need basic knowledge of musical theory; mostly for the few written examinations, mostly the Final."